October 09, 2008	Thursday	Shawwal 9, 1429

PESHAWAR, Oct 8: The provincial government approved a summary regarding the affiliation of colleges with the proposed Khan Abdul Wali Khan University, sources said.

They said that a summary sent to the government in this regard had been approved and notification would be issued within a couple of days. The Government Postgraduate College Mardan for Boys and the Government Degree College for Women would be the constituents of the proposed university.

“We have fulfilled all the desired formalities and have sent a case to the Higher Education Commission (HEC),” officials said. According to them, a team of HEC will visit Mardan to examine the site for the construction of the proposed university.

Prof Ihsan Ali, project director of the proposed university, confirmed the approval of summary by the government and said that the government had already established office for the deputy project director of the university to speed up the pace of work. The government, he said, had given him powers equivalent to that of vice chancellor for the sake of speeding up of the process.

The government, he said, had released an amount of Rs85 million for the establishment of the university. Dr Ali, who is also vice chancellor of Hazara University, said that they would utilise the infrastructure of Government Postgraduate College for boys and Government Degree College for Women till the completion of the building of the university. Both the colleges had enough space to cater to the needs of the students, he added.

“We are planning to begin classes within the next two months. But we are waiting for no objection certificate (NOC) by the HEC and notification by the provincial government regarding establishment of the proposed university,” he said.

Initially, he said that, postgraduate classes would be started in mathematics, physics, English, political science and chemistry. With the passage of time, he said, the university would offer undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in more subjects.

“We have also requested the provincial government to convene a joint meeting with the representatives of the HEC to give final shape to the university as soon as possible,” he said.